How HRD Ministry under Smriti Irani Used GIS Mapping for Benchmarking of the Schools

Smriti Irani has been quite proactive in her approach ever since she became active in Indian politics. Thus, it was not new for her when she was given the portfolio of Human Resource Development by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, to use the latest technology proactively for benchmarking of the schools meant for spreading literacy. Despite the fact that she had to face umpteen numbers of challenges when using her methods to bring efficiency in the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, there was no compromise on part of her.

It is definitely a commendable job to bring a change in the archaic system that is unwilling for any change. Smriti Iran had a difficult task to transform the system as it was she was brought for, she did not disappoint. Here we discuss the changes she brought in to map the efficiency of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan or SSA with the help of technological tools.

Using Technology for Effective Monitoring

As evident now, Smriti Irani knew that effective monitoring is essential for better management of the resources meant for universal literacy in the country, she for the first time started GIS mapping of elementary and secondary schools. Needless to say with this step the government has data that can be used to monitor schools and expedite sanctioning of schools in gap areas. At the same time, in its efforts, CBSE also enabled benchmarking of schools and student performance at the state, regional and national level and for that, they brought in an online tool SARANSH.

SARANSH has been quite useful in the sense that it provides data for 2.02 crore students and around 1.5 lakh teachers across 15,000 schools, for a period of seven years.

Shaala Siddhi & Shaala Darpan – Tools for Universal Literacy Mission

Ever since Smriti Irani took the charge at HRD Ministry, her efforts were to bring in the change that could help in the mission. Moreover, the effectiveness mission can be judged from the feedback mechanism that is put at the place. The minister knew it well and for that, her ministry for the first time brought in an online tool for school principals. The tool is called ‘Shaala Siddhi’ where performance details of student learning levels and teacher performance are uploaded regularly.

Similar to Shaala Siddhi, HRD Ministry under Smriti Irani brought in ‘Shaala Darpan’ – an end-to-end online school management system. It alerts parents via SMS on student attendance, time table, school activities, and assignments. Even now this tool is helping us in streamlining the management of administrative tasks and at the same time enables mobility of students by creating a single record of student performance, health records amongst others.